B&O's Edge is a minimalist speaker that offers serious audio quality

Bang & Olufsen has unveiled what it hopes to be a new staple in designer audiophile households – the Beosound Edge.

Looking like a round version of the monolith from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, the £2,900 Beosound Edge is a wireless speaker that has a sizeable 10in woofer bass driver on one side, while on both sides of the speaker there are dedicated 4in midrange and a 3/4in tweeter.

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To help deliver thumping sound, B&O has created a new acoustical technology it's called Active Bass Port – this supposedly unites two traditional concepts of loudspeaker design, “closed-box” and “ported”. To help explain what this new system does, B&O uses an analogy from the motoring world: it resembles that of a sports car’s active spoiler that automatically raises as the vehicle increases speeds.

When playing at lower volumes, the Edge uses the closed cabinet principle (this should mean more accurate sound reproduction), but as you turn up the volume the Active Bass Port opens to kick out "more energised bass".

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To craft its minimalist design, B&O drafted in designer Michael Anastassiades, whose work is the in Museum Of Modern Art in New York and has designed products for manufacturers including Flos and Herman Miller. The hockey-puck shape of the Edge lends itself two placement options: on the floor or placed on the wall as a "gravity-defying statement" thanks to what must be quite a sturdy wall bracket.

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Proximity sensors detect when you get close to the speaker, which then illuminate the aluminium touch control panel. Apparently you gently roll the Beosound Edge forwards and backwards to increase and decrease the volume, softly to change the volume moderately, while a stronger touch will change it more dramatically. Let go, and the Edge gently rolls back to its original position.

As there are speakers on both sides of the Edge, you can in theory control the direction of the sounds from the system. This supposedly means that as well as a room-filling soundscape, the Edge can divide a room into an active listening area and a more passive listening area. This is all done via the accompanying Bang & Olufsen app.

Bang & Olufsen

You get the usual connectivity, with AirPlay 2, Chromecast2 and Bluetooth – and yes, there is voice-control, however this is only possible when paired with either a Google Assistant-enabled speaker or an Amazon Echo device – not straight from the Edge itself.

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To contrast the polished aluminium body, Beosound Edge comes with a matt black fabric cover (which you will be able to swap out for other fabric colours in the future).

“It looks quite surreal as an object," says Anastassiades in a statement. "What happens when you experience highly visual complex products is an initial impact, but once the novelty of that impact dies there is nothing left. With visually simple products, there is nothing there to give you that first attraction. But when you see it the second time around you suddenly pay attention and by the third encounter you become even more intrigued".

The Beosound Edge is available online now and in Bang & Olufsen stores from mid-November.